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For commentary, info and to add your own comments, click here or on the discussion tab above. ---- Introduction Page One ... Page Two ... Page Three ... Without Commentary ... Cleary Translation ... Shinjin-No-Mei D.T.Suzuki ---- A translation known as Faith Mind by Clark is a W.I.P. as is the original Chinese ---- :::::''HsinHsinMing :::::(commentary R.H.Blyth) :THE TRUTH HAS NO DISTINCTIONS; :THESE COME FROM OUR FOOLISH CLINGING TO THIS AND THAT. :There is the distinction between the wise man and the fool, a :wise thought and a foolish one, but none in the Nature of Things. :Here there is perfect uniformity, law and equality. Mountains and :rivers, birds, beasts and flowers are all on undivided :indivisible thing. Yet on the other hand, each thing is itself :and no other thing, unique, irreplaceable and invaluable. Sameness :and difference are also one thing, yet two things. At one moment :we see the separate meaning of a thing, at another, its meaning :as being all things; and at some most precious moments of all, :incommunicable in speech but yet heard also through it, we know :that a thing, a person, a flower, the cry of a bird, is both one :thing and all things. Sameness and difference, and *their* :sameness and difference are the same and yet different from our :own non-existence. :SEEKING THE MIND WITH THE MIND, - - - :IS NOT THIS THE GREATEST OF ALL MISTAKES? :Clinging to the search for the mind is the last infirmity of the :religious soul, and the most self-evidently absurd, for why :should we search for the Buddha that we have already, why seek :to release ourselves from bonds that are only fancied? :But it is the greediness of our searching which invalidates it. :This is beautifully expressed in the following: :''There is a treasure in the deep mountains; :''He who has no desire for it finds it. :ILLUSION PRODUCES REST AND MOTION; :ILLUMINATION DESTROYS LIKING AND DISLIKING. :The state of the ordinary man is one in which he is continually :either peacefully contented by successful activity, or in the :anxious throes of that activity, either winning or losing, having :won or having lost. The enlightened man loses well and wins well. :ALL THESE PAIRS OF OPPOSITES :ARE CREATED BY OUR OWN FOLLY. :Once Dogen was approached by a short-tempered man and asked to :cure his short-temperedness. Dogen asked him to show his shortness :of temper, but the man confessed his inability to do so. :It had no real existence, any more than his patience. Both are :created by our own folly and idle fancy. When our minds are :full of something, not part of a thing, but all of it, when there :is no vacancy for odds and ends of passion to occupy, we act :without rashness or hesitation. What the Third Patriarch says is :very much akin to the old proverb, :"Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do". :''DREAMS, DELUSIONS, FLOWERS OF AIR, -- :WHY SHOULD WE BE SO ANXIOUS TO HAVE THEM IN OUR GRASP? :These creations of the mind, so common and habitual that there :seems to be some concrete reality behind them, are the :protagonists of all tragic drama. Fixed notions of honour, :propriety, faithfulness, conflict of necessity with the :imperturbable, ineffable, and intangible truth ultimately :destroys them. Rigidity versus fluidity, the name versus the :nameless; yet in this very willingness to die for some impossible :creed we see once more that just as the ordinary man, as he is, is :the Buddha, so these delusions are, as they stand, the truth, and :without them there is no reality. What is wrong is the anxiety to :get hold of them or the anxiety to reject them. Error or truth, :profit or loss, - - if we accept them readily, cheerfully, as in :some sense ministers of God, remembering that even the devils :fear and serve Him, these flowers of the air also have their :beauty and value, for :''Every error is an image of truth, :and in every illusion there beats the heart of mankind that :aspires for the truth that error masks. :But the mask *is* the face. :PROFIT AND LOSS, RIGHT AND WRONG, -- :AWAY WITH THEM ONCE FOR ALL! :What Sengtsan means here, is that we are to give up the false :idea that profit actually profits us, that there is any :individual self to suffer loss or gain. Forgetting all moral :principles, we are to "Dilige, et quod vis fac". (Love, and as :you please.) This abstention from choosing, from judging, does :not mean that we do not choose as pleasant or judge as wrong. :What is means is that God does it for us, God who is so often :disobeyed, who turns the other cheek and forgives his enemies. :When for example we give an order, as a teacher, or an official, :it is to be given peremptorily without a thought of the :possibility of its not being obeyed. But if it is not obeyed, :there is no *personal* irritation and wounded vanity in the angry :remonstrance w make. A law of nature, of human society has been :broken and it is right that our emotion should be aroused by :this. :The doctrine that in all our acts we are to be vicegerents of :Nature is a dangerous one, but every truth is dangerous, for it :liberated universal energies that may easily go astray. Religious :persecution, megalomania, political fanaticism are all misuses of :what the Third Patriarch inculcates. But we know them by their :fruits; by the defects, the distortions, the hatred of the :dictators. :IF THE EYE DOES NOT SLEEP, :ALL DREAMING CEASES NATURALLY. :Human life is a dream, not is its brevity and discontinuity, but :in the fact that we see things almost always as related to our :own personal interests. But we must ''"persist in our folly" to the :bitter end, and say, :My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken *me*? :At such moments we wake and see things as they really are, in :their suchness, the nails in the wood, the wood in the ground, :the sun setting in the western sky, a mother weeping for her son, :a man-less, God-less universe, each thing fulfilling the law of :its being. When we wake from our sleep of relativity and :subjectivism, nightmares of glory and disgrace, flattery and :condemnation will cease of themselves. :IF THE MIND MAKES NO DISCRIMINATION, :ALL THINGS ARE AS THEY REALLY ARE. :Things are all right, if only we will let them be alone, :cooperate with them, take lead as heavy and use it as a plummet, :take swords as sharp and receive the surgeon's knife, take pain :as dreadful but nor as something distinct from ourselves, adding :imagination to reality. Yungchia describes this condition in the :following way: :''The moon reflected in the stream, the wind blowing through the pines :''In the cool of the evening, in the deep midnight, -- what is it for? :''It is all for nothing, for itself, for others. :''This is the suchness of things. :IN THE DEEP MYSTERY OF THIS "THINGS AS THEY ARE", :WE ARE RELEASED FROM OUR RELATIONS TO THEM. :Things as they are, the coldness of ice and the sound of rain, :the fall of leaves and the silence of the sky, are ultimate :things, never to be questioned, never to be explained away. When :we know them, our relations to them, their use and misuse, their :associated pleasures and pains are all forgotten. :WHEN ALL THINGS ARE SEEN "WITH EQUAL MIND", :THEY RETURN TO THEIR NATURE. :This ''"equal mind" of Matthew Arnold is that which speaks in the :words of Marcus Aurelius: :All that happens is as usual and familiar as :''the rose in spring and the crop in summer. :NO DESCRIPTION BY ANALOGY IS POSSIBLE :OF THIS STATE WHERE ALL RELATIONS HAVE CEASED. :Metaphors and similes, parables and comparisons may be used to :describe anything belonging to the relative, the intellectually :dichotomised world, but even the simplest and commonest :experience of reality, the touch of the hot water, the smell of :camphor, are incommunicable by such and any means; how much more :so the Fatherhood of God, the Meaningless of Meaning, the :Absolute Value of a pop-corn, for in such matters, the unity of :our own emptiness and that of all other things is perceived as an :act of self-consciousness, and nothing remains to be compared :with anything. In Chapter VII of the ''"Platform Sutra" we are told :of Nanyueh, 677-744, and hid meeting with Huineng, the Sixth :Patriarch, who asked him from whence he had come. "From Suzan", :he replied, "What comes? How did it come?" asked the Patriarch. :Nanyueh replied, "We cannot say it is similar to anything". : At the beginning if Chapter IX of the same sutra, Huineng quotes :form the "Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra": :The Law has no analogy, since it is not relative. :WHEN WE STOP MOVEMENT, THERE IS NO-MOVEMENT; :WHEN WE STOP RESTING, THERE IS NO-REST. :Neither rest or movement has any reality as such; they are two :names of one thinglessness which cannot be caused to cease, :because it is uncreated. There is a waka which says: :''When it blows, :''How noisy :''The mountain wind! :''But when it blows not, :''Where will it have gone? :Blowing, not blowing, what is there but nothingness ... :an invisible, intangible something-heard-and-not-heard? :WHEN BOTH CEASE TO BE, :HOW CAN THE UNITY SUBSIST? :There is no more a unity than there is duality; relative and :absolute are named of the nameless. Zen, that is to say, is a :word that is used like an algebraic sign, for all that is :nameless, all that escapes thought, definition, explanation, yet :breathes through words and silence; is communicated in spite of :our best efforts to communicate it. Actions are either good or :bad; yet nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so. That :is to say, things are both good or bad and neither; relative and :absolute; or, if you wish, neither relative nor absolute, there :is neither duality nor a unity. :THINGS ARE ULTIMATELY, IN THEIR FINALITY, :SUBJECT TO NO LAW. :"No law"'' means no scientific, psychological, logical, :philosophical, Buddhist, or any other kind of law. As :D.H.Lawrence says, "Life is what one wants in one's soul". :It is indeed an intellectual, rational conception, and applies :only to the intellectual, rational aspect of things abstracted :from the whole. :''FOR THE ACCORDANT MIND IN ITS UNITY, :INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY CEASES. :When the mind is in accord with all creatures and with the :Buddha, one with all things, its activity as an individual :entity ceases. What Mozart was at the piano, Bach at the organ, :Shakespeare with his pen, Turner with his brush, we are with out :most trivial and personal affairs of life. When this is not so, :when our acts are hesitant, our work repugnant, our life full of :fears for the morrow and regret for the past, even the spider in :its web, the violet by the stone give us that feeling of envy, :a realization of our alienation from God that no pleasure can :assuage. :Some minds have a tendency to over-emphasize difference, some to :make everything of a meaningless sameness. Both are wrong, the :latter perhaps more than the former. :To correct this there is a saying, :''A high place has a high level; :''A low place has a low level. :ALL DOUBTS ARE CLEARED UP, :TRUE FAITH IS CONFIRMED. :Doubt and faith are concerned with one thing and one thing only, :the Goodness of the universe. And this is tested by us most :intimately and searchingly within ourselves. If at the outset we :stipulate a personal Deity, individual immortality and so on, :no resolution of doubt and establishment of faith is possible. :We are to make no demands whatever upon the world. "Judge not" :is the word here too. Standing apart from things and questioning :them, praising and condemning -- this is the cardinal error. :Living their life, dying their death, being cloven with the worm :and shrivelled in the candle flame with the moth, is the only way :to solve the mystery of the fruitless suffering, the problem of :the waste of beauty and goodness. :NOTHING REMAINS BEHIND; :THERE IS NOT ANYTHING WE MUST REMEMBER. :We are not bound by any ''"imitation of the Buddha". There are no :snags, no undigested material, no fitting in with preconceived :notions, no formula to follow in the way of our life or manner :of death. We may be confirmed or baptized if we feel it is good :for us, or die at the stake rather than submit to it. And we :extend the same privilege to everyone else. No one need be :converted to this or that religion. When we do wrong or make :mistakes, we go on with renewed vigour to the next task; a faux :pas cannot check us or make us dwell on it with self-torturing :shame. :''EMPTY, LUCID, SELF-ILLUMINATED, :WITH NO OVER-EXERTION OF THE POWER OF THE MIND. :Empty means with nothing clogging the mind, no trace of :self-interest. Lucid means seeing unreason as clearly as reason, :reflecting ugliness as serenely as beauty. Self-illuminated means :truth is not revealed to it from some outside agency. :Over-exertion of the power of the mind is that of Othello, :Mr.Tulliver, Mr.Dombey, and the protagonists of all tragic drama. :There is nothing tragic or comic, but thinking makes it so, the :thinking of the actors and the sympathetic thinking of the :self-illuminated spectators, who see their self-interest and :grieve for it, perceive the self-defacement and unreasonableness :without the reflecting surface of their own minds being marred by :it. :THIS IS WHERE THOUGHT IS USELESS, :WHAT KNOWLEDGE CANNOT FATHOM. :This verse looks back to a passage in the "Lotus Sutra": :This law cannot be known properly by thought and description, :and looks forward to the reply of Yunmen to a certain monk, who :asked, "What is this place where though is useless?", "Knowledge :and emotion cannot fathom it!" To express this thoughtless, :knowledgeless, emotionless state, in which thought and knowledge :and emotion are sublimed into instinct of the highest order, we :have such a phase as, :''The lotus blooms in the midst of the fire. :But this is too intellectual in its denial and rejection of the :intellect. Better in the following, from Thoreau: :''The weeds at the bottom gently bending down the stream, shaken by :''the watery wind, still planted where their seeds had sunk, but :''ere long to die and go down likewise; the shining pebbles, not :''yet anxious to better their condition; the chips and reeds, and :''occasional logs and stems of trees that floated past, fulfilling :''their fate, were objects of singular interest to me, and at last :''I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither is :''would bear me. :("A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers") :IN THE WORLD OF REALITY, :THERE IS NO SELF, TO OTHER THAN SELF. :To say this is easy, to believe it intentionally is not :difficult. It has an emotional, a poetical appeal which few can :withstand. With a full belly, a bank balance, when all is going :well, such a doctrine will be readily adopted. But when food is :scarce, when a man has lost his job, in hours of boredom, when :children die, and our own death is not far off, -- can we then :rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those that mourn? :In my own case, I must say that nothing makes me more contented :with my lot than to see the sufferings of others, to find my :children cleverer and prettier than those of my colleagues. :How far indeed is this from the lines above. :SHOULD YOU DESIRE IMMEDIATE CORRESPONDENCE (WITH THIS REALITY), :ALL THAT CAN BE SAID IS, "NO DUALITY!" :But even this ''"No duality!", no relativity, no choosing, no :judging, is not to be elevated into a principle of living. It may :be used as a touchstone of past conduct, or as an ideal for some :possible future situation, but for living, which is the eternal :present only, all that can be said is nothing whatever. :''WHEN THERE IS NO DUALITY, ALL THINGS ARE ONE. :THERE IS NOTHING THAT IS NOT INCLUDED. :When Thoreau lay dying, he was asked if he had made his peace :with God; he answered, ''"We have never quarreled". In Thoreau's :world, everything was included, nothing rejected and made into an :enemy. When God lived for two years by Walden lake, Thoreau did :not criticize, praise, or condemn Him. As St.Augustine says, :To live happily is to live according to the mind of God. (:"Retractions", i.1) :THE ENLIGHTENED OF ALL TIMES AND PLACES :HAVE EVERY ONE ENTERED INTO THIS TRUTH. :This sounds rather depressing, as though ordinary people were :excluded, but what Sengtsan means is that comparatively few know :that they have entered into the realm of Buddhahood, where all :men and all things without exception have their (unconscious and :unwitting) being. Not a sparrow can fall out of God's care, nor :can anyone, for all his hair-shirts and flagellations enter into :His presence. It is only a question of becoming aware of our true :condition, and this becoming aware is called "entering". :TRUTH CANNOT BE INCREASED OR DECREASED; :AN INSTANTANEOUS THOUGHT LASTS A MYRIAD YEARS. :The bonds of time and space do not prevail against the Truth, :the Way, the Buddha Mind. Long and short, here and there, :a moment and eternity are all included in it, as names alone. :Blake says: :''One thought fills immensity. :THERE IS NO HERE, NO THERE, :INFINITY IS BEFORE OUR EYES. :Here and there are dualities and therefore obstructions to the :life of perfection. Infinity is under our noses, our noses are :infinitely long. Yungchia says: :''The Mirror of the Mind brightly shining, unobstructed, :''Passes transparently through everything in the universe. :When this Mind is our mind, when we are not bored with here and :longing to be there, when the life of things is breathed in and :breathed out with every breath we take, when we live in the past :of our world and into the unborn future without desiring to undo :what is done, or avoid what must be, then we live a timeless live :now, a placeless life here. :THE INFINITELY SMALL IN AS LARGE AS THE INFINITELY GREAT, :FOR LIMITS ARE NON-EXISTENT THINGS. :This is a kind of ''*reductio ad absurdum* of the unpoetic, :commonplace position, that great and small are mutually exclusive :qualities. If the extremes meet, so does the middle and the :rest. Limits and boundaries are man-made things, and what man has :put together, man can put asunder. A doka which illustrates this :is the following: :Mount Fuji, -- :''Good in fine weather, :''Good in the rain: :''The Original Form :''Never changes. :Thoreau says: :''The shalowest still water is unfathomable. :THE INFINITELY LARGE IS AS SMALL AS THE INFINITELY MINUTE; :NO EYE CAN SEE THEIR BOUNDARIES. :Lying at night in camp Thoreau speaks of: :''The barking of the house dogs, from the loudest and hoarsest bark :''to the faintest aerial palpitation under the eaves of heaven. :WHAT IS, IS NOT; WHAT IS NOT, IS. :There is the most extreme form of expression of the Mahayana :theory that corresponds to the Christian doctrine (mystical, and :strictly speaking heretical) that God is above all qualities, all :predications, even of existence. The "is-ness" of things is a :fantasy of life's fitful fever, -- but so is their "is-not-ness". :Life is a dream, but so is the statement. This last fact is hard :to catch. When we say that unreality is also unreal, in our :normal moments, and especially when the mind is tired, this means :nothing, or less than nothing. It irritates by its illogicality, :and is repugnant because of the demand it makes that we are :unable to supply. It is therefore necessary that we say such :things, to ourselves or others, only then we are in a condition :of mind to know what we are saying, otherwise by frequent vain :repetitions we shall become as the heathen, unable to recognize :moments of vision when they visit us. So for example, death is a :fearful thing because of its irrevocableness, but at times, when :perhaps least expected, or even unwanted, the realization comes :to us that what has never existed, the individual soul, the ego, :has not done and cannot go out of existence. What was born, :immediately ceases to be. At every moment, neither existence nor :non-existence can be predicated or denied, -- yet what a world of :difference between a living child and a dead one! :Consider the following sentence of Thoreau's, put into the form :of a haiku: :''Over the old wooden bridge :''No traveller :''Crossed. :This no-traveller, like deserted roads, empty chairs, silent :organs, has more meaning, more poetry, solidity and permanence :that any traveller. "No traveller" does not mean nobody, nothing :at all; is means everyman, you and I and God and all things cross :this old rickety bridge, and like the bold lover on the Grecian :Urn can never reach the goal. :UNTIL YOU HAVE GRASPED THIS FACT, :YOUR POSITION IS SIMPLY UNTENABLE. :Common sense is revolted by the above assertion that what is, :is not, what is not, is, but in actual practice it is found to :be the only valid one. The story of the monk who was praised :for bringing a basket to catch the drips from the leaking roof :illustrates this identity of what is and what is not. A bucket :or a basket, there is no difference. One man's meat is another :man's poison. A leaf of grass is a six-foot golden Buddha. :Life is a perpetual dying. And if you keep to the so-called :commonsense point of view (which is more elastic than supposed) :you will find that your hard and fast divisions between right and :wrong, profit and loss, useful and harmful, are inapplicable to :all your problems and indeed to every circumstance of life that :is deeply felt and profoundly experienced. So Blake says: :''Listen to fool's reproach! It is a kingly title! :and Yungchia says the same thing, a thousand years before him: :''Let me allow others to speak ill of me, trespass against me; :''It is like trying to burn the sky with fire, only wearing :''themselves out. :''Listening to them is like drinking the Nectar of Eternal Life; :''All fades, and I am suddenly in the Wonderful World. :ONE THING IS ALL THINGS; :ALL THINGS ARE ONE THING. :This expresses in an extreme form the state of Mind towards which :things are constantly tending, called paradox by logic, metaphor :by literature, genius or madness by popular consent. :The humorist says, describing the beauty of a certain film actress, :"When she comes into the room, the room comes in with her". :Another step has been taken towards the region where: :''One sentence decides heaven and earth; :''One sword pacifies all sublunary things. :When you have really seen one flower, you have seen not only all :flowers, but all non-flowers. One principle, one life, one :animate or inanimate manifestation moves and upholds all things, :and thus it is said: :''One sight, and all is seen, :''Like a great round mirror. :IF THIS IS SO FOR YOU, :THERE IS NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT PERFECT KNOWLEDGE. :Worry in the great enemy. The search for enlightenment obscures :and delays it. What is wrong is not the pain and grief suffering, :but thinking about ourselves as sufferers. :Therefore, when, if only temporarily, we see into the unity of :the life of the multifarious things of this world, do not let us :lose our firm conviction of this vision by thoughts of our sins :of omission and commission, inconsistency of words and actions. :Thoreau says of the cry of the cock: :''The merit of this bird's strain is in its freedom form all :''plainliveness. The singer can easily move us to tears or :''laughter, but where is he who can excite in us a pure morning :''joy? When, in doleful dumps, breaking the awful stillness of our :''wooden sidewalk on a Sunday, or, perchance, a watcher in the :''house of mourning, I hear a cockerel crow far or near, I think to :''myself, "There is one of us well, at any rate", -- and with a :''sudden rush return to my senses. :("Walking") :It is the same spirit that breathes in the words of Miyamoto :Musashi, great swordsman and painter: :''As far as I am concerned, I regret nothing. :THE BELIEVING MIND IS NOT DUAL; :WHAT IS DUAL IS NOT THE BELIEVING MIND. :When we believe in *something*, this is not the believing mind. :If we say we believe in ourselves, this again is a mistake, of :experience or of expression. "The believing mind believes in :itself", -- this, rightly understood, contains no error. The :"Lankavatara Sutra" says: :''Believing in the truth of timeless life is called the Believing Mind. :Clearer still is the "Nirvana Sutra": :''The Believing Mind is the Buddha nature. :Here there is no danger of one thing believing in another thing. :The Buddha nature is the true nature of every thing and of :everything. The believing mind is this Buddha-activity. A Haydn :minuet or the Lord's prayer, or a kitten catching at the falling :autumn leaves is a clear thought of this mind, a harmonious :movement of the Buddha nature. It is perfect because it is :single, unique, complete, all-including. :BEYOND ALL LANGUAGE, :'''FOR IT, THERE IS NO PAST, NO PRESENT, NO FUTURE. :Language is vitally concerned with time, with tense. The Way is :timeless and breaks through language, but does not discard it. :Silence itself is a form of speaking, just as the blank spaces :between the marks of the printing are as much part of the :printing as the letters themselves. The Way is timeless yet it :cannot dispense with time. Eternity and time are in love with :each other, continually embracing in a divine union, yet always :separate to the purely human eye. ---- Introduction Page One ... Page Two ... Page Three ... Without Commentary ... Cleary Translation ... Shinjin-No-Mei D.T.Suzuki ---- A translation known as Faith Mind by Clark is a W.I.P. as is the original Chinese ---- Category:-ts-